Apple"s move to Intel is certainly a risk. But it also has some significant benefits. First, they get economies of scale on their side -- they can manufacture Macs at a price similar to what Dell and HP get.
But secondly, it opens the door for Apple to do what they did with the iPod -- produce a better engineered product and take over a market. Can they do it? Is the personal computer market similar enough to the scenario Apple faced in the portable media market? Only time will tell. However, MacOS X "Leopard" and Longhorn will be arriving at nearly the same time. The OS Wars may be getting very interesting again.